Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Venice

Sorry about the delay in posting the Venice photos! It's been busy -- Sally Collins visited our guild and I took two full-day classes from her and attended an evening lecture. Wow! I'll post more on that later, but for now, here's Venice.
This is from the exterior of St. Mark's (San Marco) in Venice. I have never seen anything like it -- truly amazing. Although I can't say I enjoy standing in line to get in, it does provide an opportunity to look very carefully at the things around you. There's so much to see that it's nice to be forced to stand and look. The pinkish colors in the stones give the exterior such a warm feel. Click on the photos to enlarge them and see the detail.
This exterior is actually part of the Doge's palace, which is attached to the basilica. (This is immediately to the right of the preceding photo.) The brickwork is a patchwork pattern. I looked at the pattern carefully, and every now and then the alternating greys and pinks in the interior of the "blocks" do not follow the pattern. It makes it more interesting, and I am assuming it was intentional.
I love this wall -- it's a quilt in marble.
Here you can see the elegant pillars with the subtle yet stunning colors from the marble.



The most amazing thing about the basilica is the floors. Unfortunately, they don't let you take any pictures inside. I ended up buying a book, The Floors of Venice by Tudy Sammartini, which has both English and Italian text in the same book. It was expensive, but for a book with so many color photos, it was well worth it. I wanted to put a link to Amazon for anyone interested in purchasing it, but they only have scalper-priced used ones. You can, however, order it here for what I paid for it in Italy, although I don't know what the postage will be.
ItalicThis is a two-page spread from the book. I was thinking how drafting it into a quilt would be a formidable task, but when I looked for the book online, I see that someone has already made it into a quilt. Check it out here. Incredible! [Edit - oops! Just realized the quilt is not exactly this floor, but it's a similar design and is from Venice.]
Here's another photo from the book. The entire basilica is filled with the most amazing floors! It's a quilter's paradise.
Venice is more than San Marco's, of course. I could never live in a city without cars or trees (truly odd, especially at night), but I could visit again and again. The contrast between Amsterdam and Venice was so strong that it was a day before it occurred to me that both are cities built on canals. They could not be more different. I loved them both.

10 comments:

Tonya Ricucci said...

Gorgeous pics, beautiful city. Especially love that winged lion - what in incredible face on him. I could happily live in a city without cars. Trees is another matter...

JoAnna said...

I love your photos. Venice always looks amazing in pictures and it must be breathtaking in person (but I can see how the lines could be troublesome). I agree, Tonya - I wouldn't miss cars, but trees are important. I didn't even consider that Venice wouldn't have trees, but I guess it makes sense.

Anonymous said...

How beautiful! An artists dream! Thanks for sharing your photos with all of us.

Michael5000 said...

Hiya,

First time visitor; followed you home from Quilty the Libster. Love the way you seem to quilting patterns in the landscape!

Another guy in my guild (yes, my guild has more than one guy! Like, five or something!) did an AMAZING quilt based, I think, on the very Venetian floor pattern that is on the cover of that book. Unfortunately, he doesn't put images online....

Clare said...

I love the colours in the last picture. Dusky pink and white with a hint of blue - what fantastic colours for a quilt. Obviously it wasn't raining a lot when you were over. The summer this year has been dreadful!

Susan said...

Thanks for posting the pictures. I never imagined the outside of the Doge's Palace looking quite like that in close up.

Katie said...

Thank you so much for taking me with you on your travels. Great pics. Isn't it amazing where we see quilt designs? Also love your wonky letters. I'm looking forward to seeing them put together. Keeping playing as you do it. :)

Pam said...

Such wonderful pictures. That would be amazing to have an entire book of pictures of the different floors. A woman in my quilt guild has made a couple of quilts base on the floors of Venice and they are amazing - but a lot of work.

Interesting comment about the differences between Amsterdam and Venice. I have been to Amsterdam - one day I would love to go to Venice.

Jenni said...

Lovely photos of Venice. I went there over 20 years ago, and it is on my list of places to return to one day. I loved the canals and always feeling slightly lost. Once I figured out there were little painted arrows and directions high up on the walls, I was a lot better off.

Unknown said...

You do get some trees in Venice albeit usually just the odd one or two at a time in a square or a garden - we visited about 3 years ago now and it was simply THE most magical place I've ever been to - so incredibly different - has to be one of those 'must see before you die' destinations. Visited Amsterdam about 3 months before it and loved that too but in a different way and certainly nothing like as magical